GORDON FEAREY

Lives and works in Irvington, NY

Artist statement

A rectangular painting, like a window, raises a question: how far does the picture extend beyond the frame? For me, infinitely in all directions. The frame may define a finite portion of an infinite field. In my painting, I approach infinity through my own finiteness. My line can go only so far. My brushstrokes last only so long before they die. Writing and music inspire my painting because they have beginnings and endings and are made up of sequences of moments. I’m also inspired by Lucretius, who rejects the idea of a center or edge to the cosmos and sees human life as a fleeting moment within a boundless continuum of time. In my Lucretius series, I make a single line that begins and ends at the edges of the canvas. The challenge is to integrate the line with the background—figure with ground. For me, this formal problem has a metaphysical dimension. The figure corresponds to the finite span of a human life; the ground, to the infinite time and space in which it occurs.

Artwork